11/12/2009

Is "Anglicanorum coetibus" a tragic misspelling?

In a previous post Anglicanorum Coetibus: Pass the Groups, I suggested that perhaps "coetibus" might have various meanings. I pointed out that, "The word "Coetibus" means groups in this context but other possibilities include the following,"meeting, encounter, (political or illegal) assembly; union; band, gang, crowd; social intercourse (w/hominium), society, company; sexual intercourse." The matter of "coeti.." apparently has to do with the idea of affiliation, as in people who affiliate with one another or with an brand, or more sexually, who are pelvic affiliates, and much in between."

Little did I know that coetibus might simply have been a misspelling - tragically so - of the word "ceti," so that "coeti" is actually "ceti" and instead of the unseemly possibilities of this meaning "groups" as in "groups of Anglicans" or "group grope," this is a reference to a star "Ceti Alpha." The constellation Cetus is home of Tau Ceti, a star similar to our own sun in size and the target for CETI efforts to contact alien intelligence. It is also the home for Ceti Alpha V, which is the home of a terrible creature used as an instrument of torture.

A comment on this blog suggested that the reference to "coetibus" may in fact be a reference to the infamous Ceti eel, a beast that was forced into Commander Chekov and then matured and came out of his ear. The Ceti eel drove it's host mad and Chekov's scream is a memorable moment in an otherwise very camp movie, "The Wrath of Khan."

So here is the deal: It may very well be that the Pope, may peace be upon him, issued this Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum cetibus," "Anglican bug in the brain" in order to but a bug in our collective Anglican brain and drive us mad. Perhaps others in translating from the Pope's notes, stuck in an 'o'. Independent evidence for this is that the more we try to understand just what sort of gift this offering of room for reunion is, we more we find madness.

Just remember, as my son the scientist says, "The Truth is out there."

I don't get where you're going with this, or why you're hanging onto it. Unless you're a Latin scholar, or have one whispering in your ear, do you really have grounds to analyze the Latin usage of an organization that constantly issues things in Latin?

CETI (Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a branch of SETI research that focuses on composing and deciphering messages that could theoretically be understood by another technological civilization.

On a less ironic note, the (Roman Catholic) Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church has written an open letter on the subject which can be found here. Since the link is to a MS Word document and some may be reluctant to open it, I have given the text of the letter here.

OK... Comments, gripes, etc welcomed, but with comment moderation but with some cautions and one rule:Cautions: Calling people fools, idiots, etc, will be reason to bounce your comment. Keeping in mind that in the struggles it is difficult enough to try to respect opponents, we should at least try.Rule: PLEASE DO NOT SIGN OFF AS ANONYMOUS: BEGIN OR END THE MESSAGE WITH A NAME - ANY NAME. ANONYMOUS commentary will be cut.